Zack Addy and Pelant-- Alternative
by BonesWarriorsHarryPotter
Summary: Zack Addy breaks out of his mental hospital to help the Squinterns at the Jeffersonian solve the last case of the Pelant murders. How I thought I should have happened.
1. Chapter 1

"It's impossible." Special Agent Seeley Booth growled. He swept the beam of his flashlight around the scene. The door was ajar, the lock opened and glowing green, throwing dim shadows across the room. The whole room was spotless. Zack would never be caught.

"Bones, have you found anything?" he asked, keeping a hand on his Sig Sauer the entire time. The cold metal cooled his sweaty hand, sending lines of cool through his veins.

Dr. Temperance 'Bones' Brennan, his wife and the best forensic anthropologist in the world turned around. Her chestnut hair was pulled back in a pony tail, showing the fresh coat of pain on her face. "Nothing yet," her voice cracked, and she whiped her head down quickly to hide her face.

Booth felt sadness pour into his heart. Zack Addy, the young man who had escaped from this mental hospital had been an intern and doctor for many years at the Jeffersonian, the forensic institute where Bones worked, and had been a reliable person, even though he had a hard time making social relationships. And yet, he was an apprentice of the most infamous serial killer in the history of the Jeffersonian, the Gormogon, who ate his victims, and then left bloody clues everywhere. His hands had been destroyed in an explosion he had created in the lab to help the Gormogon, and then been prosecuted and placed in the mental hospital.

And now, the brilliant Dr. Zack Addy had escaped, and old wounds were opening.

In the corner, Jack Hodgins, was inspecting the walls, not showing his face, his curly hair slick with sweat, and his shoulders slumped.

"Have you found any evidence?" questioned Booth, checking his watch. 2300 hrs.

"Nothing." Hodgins measured the length of the walls, and recorded them on slate of paper. "There's absolutely, no evidence."

"Impossible," muttered Booth. He shifted forward, and grabbed Hodgins arm. He felt hard sinews flex beneath Hodgins's arm. "Give me the microscope,"

Anger flared in Hodgins's eyes. "You think I would deliberately miss evidence to save my friends ass?"

"No," admitted Booth. "But I know that if you go into a case loving a person as much as you love Zack, it's hard to concentrate. I know a lot about that type of stuff."

Hodgins ripped his arm free, his muscles clenched, and his face red with fury. "The hell do you know about forensics?"

"Dr. Hodgins," Temperance Brennan's voice held a cold, searing edge. "Why don't you let some of the agents handle the evidence?" Her question hung in the air like a tantalizing smell. She gestured to a glass jar next to her that refracted light all over the room. Inside were a few multicolored sparks. "I want you to identify the particulates inside this jar. I think it's an alloy of carbon and iron."

Hodgins's hooded eyes examined the jar with cold efficiency. "Yes, Dr. B." He accepted. He picked up the jar with latex gloves and left the room.

"Enough with this!" Booth shouted. The FBI agents around the room froze, eyes flicking up from their work, latex squealing.

"We have a serial killer on the loose, and we're not dealing with him! I don't give a rats ass about Dr. Addy, I just want Pelant dead. Everyone clean up. We're going back."

"But, no!" Bones slapped her latex gloves on the ground. "Booth, that's irrational! Leaving a crime like this unsolved, would be, more than a mistake, it would be a catastrophe! The Jeffersonian would be disgraced!"

"Also, Zack could help us find Pelant!" Hodgins stated flatly. "All of your new interns are inefficient and have 'tude, Dr. B."

"They do not!" Brennan shot back, her icy blue eyes on fire.

" I find it interesting that Dr. Brennan continuously uses redirected aggression to deal with the pain of losing a loved one," Dr. Lance Sweets commented.

Booth stepped in, his dark eyebrows pulled together. "Come on. We need to get back to the Jeffersonian."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I do not own Bones! Just so You guys know.

The gentle purring of the car rattled up one of Jack Hodgins's leg, and he sighed, wearily resting his head on the edge of the window. Now his jaw vibrated with the shaking of the engine, blurring his vision.

A soft hand touched his shoulder. Chills ached down his spine. "What's wrong, sweetie?" It was Angela's voice, as sweet and clear as warm spring water rushing over rocks.

"It's just..." Hodgin's voice caught in his throat around the iron lump. "I wish Zack was here."

"Oh, Jack..." Angela said, her voice tempered with sadness.

"I know." Hodgins continued. "He's locked up in the loony bin. But i just want to believe that he'll come back."

A small, pained sound escaped Angela's throat and she leaned her head into Hodgins's shoulder, her tears leaking into his shirt.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

**I do not own Bones at all! Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting. Based on the episode The Sense in the Sacrifice.**

"Look, I love the closeness sweetie, but shouldn't there be something else you should be doing?" Angela chided. She paced around the lab nervously, checking each computer carefully.

"I just want to make sure the shell works," rebutted Hodgins. He peered over her shoulder intently, gazing at the intricate layers of firewalls she had installed.

"Yeah, well, I've set up a trident subs worth of light emitting jammers; there is no way Pelant is hacking through this thing."

"Hey, Sweets, I thought you were on leave," Hodgins commented. He was turning toward the door when Dr. Lance Sweet and Caroline entered.

"Pelant may think he's smarter than us, but he's not smarter than us all put together." Caroline asserted, her voice strong.

Hodgins swallowed hard as Dr. Saroyan and Dr. Brennan wheeled the corpse into the lab. The plan was to desecrate a human cadaver like Prometheus and set it up where Pelant could see it. Since Pelant could not bear someone doing a bloodier murder than him, he was sure to come out of hiding for it. Then, when someone discovered the body, they would pretend to investigate it while someone looked for Pelant.

_No, no, no. _Hodgins forced down the bile rising in his throat. He had been through many disgusting corpse related situations before, but deliberately mutilating a body seemed so _wrong _that Hodgins's stomach rebelled against the thought.

He stepped down the stairs, and exited through the glass doors, tearing off his badge as he went. He pushed through the heavy doors. He ripped the car door open, and collapsed into the seat. That's when he broke. Hodgins put his head into his hands, and wept. The ache in his heart intensified and his thoughts traveled to Zack's face. The tears came faster and thicker, and scraps of memories flickered through his brain in a tidal wave of agony.

He slammed the door and twisted the keys in the car savagely, and stabbed the accelerator with his boot, and squealed out of the drive way with the stench of burning rubber.

His hands clenched the wheel until his knuckles were white and his fingernails cut deep into the plastic steering wheel. Suddenly, his eye caught on face in the street. Close cut borwn hair, handsome face, worn eyes that gleamed with intelligence.

Hodgins tore the steering wheel to the side, his heart thundering. With a squeal of burning rubber he pulled off the road. The dark haired young man did not even flinch. Hodgins hurled himself out of the car.

He threw his arms around Zack. Zack was crying. Tears bled through Hodgins's shirt. They clutched onto each other, until Zack staggered, and Hodgins released him, his eyes bright and full.

"God, Zack, I missed you so much,"

"I felt the same rush of proteins and adrenaline that you did. In other words I missed you too." Zack's face was full of tears.

"Get in the car," Hodgins invited. "I can get your job back at the Jeffersonian."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

**_I do not own Bones. Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting!_**

The blue jumpsuit hung forlornly in the repository, the smell of phickuntiatus or dust heavy in the air, stinging in my sinuses and edging at my maxilla. Slowly, reverently, I unhooked the cotton jumpsuit, my fingers delicately caressing the embroidered symmetrical letters. Zack Addy. My name. I stripped off my clothes, ignoring Hodgins's glances at my muscled abdomen. In approximately 4.199 of a second, I had changed into my old Jeffersonian uniform.

"Nice six pack man," Hodgins said, his eyes lighting up and smiling,

"You mean my rectus abdominis, pectoralis major, external and internal oblique and transverse abdominis?" I continued, not even letting Hodgins open his mouth. "Yes, I have been exercising."

Hodgins laughed. "Now that, is what I really miss about you."

He led me through the winding corridors I have memorized on my first day here, and finally, we were at the entrance of the lab. My heart thundered rapidly as my pituitary gland excreted numerous nervous hormones.

Hodgins opened the door, and scanned his card, along with mine. I saw the chestnut pony tail of Dr. Brennan, and my heart leaped in my throat. Cam and Angela stood nearby, their brows creased with effort. They were dismembering a cadaver that lay on the steel table. Dr. Brennan was in the process of finishing her 36th pass with her bone saw on the man's upper humerus.

I noticed the congruencies of the wounds of the man to wounds a giant eagle might make. I immediately saw that the liver had been removed, and the ragged shape of the limbs. A light clicked on in my head. Prometheus.

"Dr. Brennan?" Hodgins spoke up.

Dr. Brennan turned, and her eyes locked on mine. Her retinas lit up with joy, and her lips pulled up in a smile of pure happiness. "Zack!"

There was nothing to me in the world except us, flying towards each other in the small space of the lab. We collided, my seventh and eighth rib chafed against her clavicle, and her muscles contracted as she squeezed me. We stayed in the same spot, enfolded in each others arms. I vaguely felt Cam's hands and Angela's lips, but all that mattered to me is the smell coming off Dr. Brennan, the mixture of sweetness and ecstasy.

When we finally pulled apart, she explained the plan to me, as Hodgins placed maggots on the body. The plan was to desecrate a human cadaver like Prometheus and set it up where Pelant could see it. Since Pelant could not bear someone doing a bloodier murder than him, he was sure to come out of hiding for it. Then, when someone discovered the body, they would pretend to investigate it while someone looked for Pelant.

"That's very rational and logical, Dr. Brennan," I told her.

"Finish the incisions to the fifth phalanges, Zack," she said, but her face was smiling.

We delivered the wrapped body to a gray haired man who walked like he had been shot full of ballistics. Which he had. He was Hayes Flynn, a man Pelant had nearly killed.

"I calculate that he will not get this done on time," I said to Dr. Brennan. She nodded, not saying a word.

The bright flashing blue lights of the police casted jagged shadows around the rock. The cavader's body was chained to a rock, in the posture Prometheus was in when he died. A circle of onlookers watched, many of the brows wrinkled, and occipital orbs averted. _Conduct this as if it was real, Zack. _I told myself. I picked up the camera, and began to snap pictures.

"The remains were found by a dog walker one hour ago, she called it into metro." Cam said, as she walked behind a news truck. "The woman will have nightmares for the rest of her life."

I can smell Booth's tension as he replied. "I can't fake everything."

"Time of death, blowfly larvae indicate ten hours ago," Hodgins said, zooming in on the corpse. _Something isn't right. _I thought.

"This isn't-" I began.

"Oh, god," It's Hodgins. A pair of pliers are perched in his hand. In the pliers jaws is a blue flower.

"Monkshood," I blurted out. Fear and adrenaline began to seep through my bones. "It means a foe is near."

"Pelant is telling us that we didn't fool him," Cam muttered.

"It's worse than that," I pointed out. I took a deep breath and said, "This isn't our body." Booth yanked out his phone and began dialing. "This person has remodeled fractures on his third and forth left ribs, and both clavicles."

Booth's eyes were growing wider and more panicked than ever. "Come on, come on," he snarled at his phone.

The phone didn't pick up. "I know these wounds!" Booth howled. "It's Flynn!"

He hurled his phone at the rock, and with a spray of multicolored sparks, it split apart. I lowered my head.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

**I do not own Bones. Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting. **

"Booth was right. This is Hayes Flynn." Dr. Brennan looked down over the bones, orange liquid leaking through the muscles and bones and onto the table.

"There are no defensive wounds," I noted, touching the humerus and phalanges.

"Pelant's used anethetic before," Cam informed me.

"Pelant is mirroring my technique," Dr. Brennan seemed to be talking to herself.

"I'll swab for particulates," Hodgins spoke for the first time in a while.

"Pelant doesn't leave particulates." Dr. Brennan objected.

"He's going to make a mistake sometime," Hodgins responded, and left quickly.

"There are glant marks on the hepatic artery," Cam's face is painted with fear and digust.

"This means that Pelant kept Flynn alive while he removed his liver," I whispered.

"He's trying to tell us that this is our fault!"

"We did not kill Hayes Flynn,"

"All we can do is use the vidence that we have!" a sensible answer from Dr. Brennan.

"He doesn't leave evidence!"

"And that is a clue within itself."

"You're right." Hodgins. "He would need a place with a power source, isolated, with air filters, etc cetera."

"I'll cross reference his killings," Me.

"Look, Zack," Dr. Brennan moved the microscope so a magnified clavicle filled up the screen. I could see a small pin in the bone.

"A bone pin?" I asked. "Those are extremely rare. Expensive too."

"Call Booth," Dr. Brennan ordered.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

**I do not own Bones. Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting. **

Dr. Brennan whisked by me, her brow creased, her steps were fast and hurried. Her path wound toward bones storage. A terrible feeling began to well up inside me. Where I had hidden the Master's bones and stolen teeth for him. I almost called her name out, but she was already gone. Pain seared through my heart as I remembered her kiss with Booth.

For a full moment I stood there, and then the sirens began to blare. There was a hazard somewhere in the building, and I knew where it came from. I ran toward bone storage.

I banged through the door .0234 seconds after security got there. Dr. Brennan stood at a table, a grenade's laser playing across her chest. She had been looking a fractures on bones.

"Dr. Brennan?" I ventured.

She looked over at me. "Pelant was here. He said if I moved, it would go off."

Booth slammed through the room and plucked up the grenade. "It's a toy," he growled. And he smashed it under his boot.

"The bills found in Flynn's fridge were circulating in central Mariland," Angela said. "There's just too many there to it to be a coincidence."

Booth nodded. "Here's where all the money was spent," Angela popped up a map on the computer. "This narrows down the places we are searching to a few hundred square miles."

"Dr. Brennan," I called. "Look here," I pointed to the third bicuspid on the jaw. "It's chipped."

"Huhhh,"

Cam came in, her face grim. "I've found the missing peice," she said, holding up a plate containing a tooth fragment. "It was in his stomach."

"I'd be willing to bet that Flynn knocked his own tooth out and swallowed it to tell us where he was," I analyzed.

"Very good, Zack," Dr. Brennan praised. "I'll have Hodgins swab for particulates."

Based on the elements that Hodgins found on the tooth, from my analysis, Flynn was in proximity to a coal burning fire when he was killed. A power plant. Flynn was killed in a fucking power plant.

Quickly, I scanned in the coordinates of the places where Pelant had spent money. I began my search for an abandoned power plant. My fingers moved in lightning fast strokes across the keyboard. _Come on, come on! _

Within seconds of cross referencing all particulates and ratios and geometry I had found something. The Keyleer power plant. They had shut down operations ten years ago. Light lanced through my brain. This was where Pelant was hiding!

"Dr. Brennan!" I yelled. She was nowhere. I sat down at the computer and hacked into the security cams at the Keyleer powerplant. Her car was pulling up at the gate. _Oh fuck. _


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

**I do not own Bones. Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting. **

I sprinted down the hallways, and stopped at the wardrobe. A SWAT uniform hung there, swaying gently. I clocked the type of fabric and it's ability. _Perfect. _I needed to get to Brennan. Now.

I donned it, and strapped on the helmet, wincing as the Kevlar scratched my scalp. I pulled a M4-A1 off the shelf and strapped double pistols to my belt. I reached the underground parking within seconds. I unlocked a speed patrol car, and jammed the keys into the ignition. With a sputter, and a roar, the car came to life. With the stench of burning rubber, I pealed out of the garage.

In ten minutes I had reached the gates of Keyleer power plant. Dr. Brennan's car rested just inside the gate, still warm. Tall barbed wire fences wheeled around the plant in concentric symmetry. I climbed to the top and vaulted the barbed wire easily.

My heart thundered in my ears as my vascular muscles pumped my blood fast through my veins. I was inside the power plant. It was well lit, and yet, a shiver of cold terror razored down my spine. I controlled my breathing with a single thought, and called upon my military training. I noticed a grate to my left.

I shoved a crowbar under it and yanked it upward. I could hear faint vibrations, Dr. Brennan or Pelant talking, I calculated.

Before me, I came to a dead end. A giant, rusted green metal door stood in my way, still vibrating from slamming shut. I could feel warmth in the air; Dr. Brennan had been here.

I stripped off my vest, and slipped through the narrow crack. Now Pelant's voice was louder. Suddenly, an explosion shattered the silence. I clapped my hands over my ears, and gasped with pain. I heard a body fall to the floor. I had twenty more feet to go. Smoke wafted through the cracks, burning my eyes.

I urged myself forward.

I broke through. On a narrow catwalk, Pelant had his arm around Dr. Brennan. A gun was in his hand and a detonator was on the floor. He cocked the gun and pointed it at me. Everything slowed down.

I raised the rifle, and pulled the trigger. "Zack!" A cold pain slammed into my chest. Blood sprayed upward. I gasped. Pain twisted through every bone, every fiber, nerve, muscle of my body. Pelant was falling...

My back crumpled as it hit the ground, and blood welled out of my wound. The world began to blur, the edges becoming soft, and bright. A sparkling, bloody red haze descended on me.

Dr. Brennan was at my side, her face wet with tears. Tempe. My Tempe. The last thing I would look at would be her eyes. The one thing I had wished for my whole life.

Life ebbed out of me, and I gasped for air, oxygen whooshing out of my torn lung. Tempe leaned down over me, and pressed her lips to mine, her eyes wild with fear and pain. I coughed, and blood came to my lips.

I reached up to touch my chest and my fingers came away covered with blood. Booth was standing over me, his eyes wide, pleading with me to stay with them, Tempe's fingers interlocked with mine, as my hands became cold, and my heart struggled weakly in my chest.

The last thing I heard was her voice repeating over and over again, "Zack, Zack, Zack..." And then even that faded away into white noise, and my heart gave out. Blackness consumed my last vision. Her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**I do not own Bones. Bones belongs to Fox Broadcasting. **

I watched Zack's body from afar, everything swimming in blurry lines, except for him, him in razor sharp detail. The patches of white bandages were sullied by red, and his face was covered in glittering beads of sweat. "Bones," It's Booth, his voice soft with sympathy.

"We need to go."

"No," I snarled. "Zack needs someone to observe him during his medical treatment."

"Look, Bones, I get it. Watching a comrade whose been injured, it's hard. But the doctors need us to clear out." Booth's words were kind, but his tone was icy, and with inky undercurrents. I deducted that he didn't like me kissing Zack. He felt that Zack was a sexual rival. Irrational males.

"No!" Booth made a wild grab for me, but I ducked quickly. Inside the room, behind the glass, Zack moaned, probably at the sound of my voice.

Booth held me in strong arms as I watched helplessly as the doctors attached IVs to his upper radius, and as the clear liquid flowed into his skin. Their brows creased with worry, they changed his bandages, and peered at x rays of his fourth and fifth left ribs. Finally, after a long, agonizing while had passed, a doctor emerged, his face wet with sweat and his apron spattered with blood. Zack's blood.

"We've stabilized his condition," the doctor said. "That means-"

"I know what that means." I interrupted. "I am the most esteemed forensic anthropologist in the world, and I work at the Jeffersonian Institute. Cut the shit and let me in,"

The doctor opened his mouth, and then closed it again. Fury rushed through me. "G-go right in, ma'am," he stammered.

Booth remained outside, as I entered the room. The glass door slid shut on automated hinges. I looked at Zack, and realized how much he had grown. He now was stronger, muscular, his bone structure prominent. He has truly unique bones.

He blinked, struggling through the opiates that hazed his thoughts. "Hey,"

"Hey," I replied.

"Pelant is dead." It wasn't a question.

"Correct." I told him.

"I figured out how he committed his murders," Zack forced the words out.

"I saw. You were right, as always."

A faint smile touched his lips. "You and Booth are getting married now?"

"How did you know?" I asked, surprised. I hadn't told anyone yet.

"When you two first got together, I calculated the weeks you would spend apart, the days together and how long the relationship would take. I came to the conclusion that you would get married three days from now." Zack recited the words like he had memorized them.

"You're never, ever wrong, are you, Zack?" I asked, my voice full of amazement.

"Well, ninety-" He began hastily, his cheeks red.

"Shhh," I said. A warm feeling started up in my chest as the idea popped into my head. "Do you want to be the best man at Booth and I's wedding?"

A look of amazement danced across his face like a flower unfurling from sleep. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Of course I would, Dr. Brennan!" His smile was about six inches wide, and his face nearly glowed.

"Zack." He looked at me. "Please call me Tempe."


	9. Chapter 9

The dress was light and airy around my figure, a cloud encircling me and lifting me into complete euphoria. Booth's smile was bright and his eyes the most appealing shade of hazel. His suit was impeccable as well. The flowers behind him were brilliant and my beloved Jeffersonian glowed in the background.

As I turned, my eyes swept the crowd. I catalogued the people. Everyone, but Zack was there. A sharp pain rose in my throat, choking me. His condition had deteriorated, and he had predicted he would die by July. That was only a month away. His eyes were always hopeful when he talked to me, but the information that sprouted from his mouth was not. He knew better than the doctors when he would die and how painful it would be.

I turned toward Booth, and instead of my soon-to-be-husband, I saw a striking young Caucasian male in a wheel chair and tuxedo. "Congratulations, Dr. Brennan."

"Zack!" I gasped. An icy wave of emotion rushed over me. "You made it!"

"I would never miss your wedding day." Zack whispered. His face was happy, but his voice held a trace of pain. He still loved me.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, and only then did I realize that I could feel the posterior of his first through seventh ribs on both sides. The rational, strong Dr. Addy was wasting away. But he smiled, he wheeled himself so he was sitting next to Hodgins and Angela.

Booth's eyes filled with tears as the music began.


	10. Chapter 10

After all the bright lights and swirls of dresses, the after party began, and we drunk and laughed. Even Zack, though he didn't drink. This bothered Angela.

"Z-man, why don't you ever drink?" she asked, her voice beginning to be slurred with alcohol.

Zack looked up, the smile gone from his face. "I was an addict for about a month. I couldn't get off, no matter what the doctors prescribed, so I made my own formula, and cured myself." He stared down, pain etched into his face.

Angela opened her mouth to apologize, but Zack was already gone, into the night, a fading figure. My heart jerked in my chest. I imagined how painful this was for Zack in the first place, watching me, his idol, get married, and then, be questioned about a painful part of his life.

I ran after him in the night. I found him in the lab, staring out into space, tears on his cheeks. He sat in the same place he used to stand at his lab unit. Except now, a gun was resting on his temple. Zack had broken. He was going to commit suicide. His shoulders shook and his sobs echoed around the room. My heart trembled in my chest and then with a terrible throb, broke in two, filling me with hot emotion. Zack, my faithful, genius, and lab assistant's life was being torn asunder. His body and emotions were broken.

I stepped forward, my eyes blurring with tears. I knelt in front of him.

"I'm a freak." Zack said, his tears silver on his cheeks. "Just like my brothers always told me." He looked upward. "I can't do anything socially. My most meaningful relationships are with skeletons. They were right all of these years."

"No, Zack. You are the kindest and most intelligent person that I know. Shut up about those people. You matter the world to me."

The tears flooded his eyes, ready to overflow. To stop the tears, I did the only thing I could think of. It was irrational and stupid, but I did it anyway. I pressed my lips to Zack's and held him close and pushed his tears back. The gun fell out of his hands with a clatter. His hands, curled up, resting on my chest tightened. He tasted of ashes and misery, a surprising flavor for such as sweet kiss.

"Don't let them take you away from me." I whispered.


	11. Chapter 11

Alone in my room, I contemplated the ceiling silently. Booth lay beside me, his gentle snores echoing through our room. It was 6:49.91 in the morning. My phone buzzed at my side, rattling my fourth ribs. I picked it up, and looked at the number. ZACK. It read in bold letters on the LCD screen.

I picked it up. "Brennan."

"Hello, Dr. Brennan, it's Zack," His voice was bouncy and light, the happiest I had heard him since three years ago.

"Hey Zack, what have you been doing lately?"

"Will you come to my wedding?" Zack's voice quivered with elation.

"Zack!" I said, my voice raising an octave with surprise. "Yes, I would. " I smiled as I heard the deep intake of breath on the other line, and the tears beginning to flow. "Which lovely lady are you getting married to?"

"Her name's Lily," Zack sobbed, his voice filled with the summit of ecstasy. "She and you kept me wanting to live during my surgeries."

"Congratulations!" I cried.

Four days later, I wore a simple dress and sat next to Angela as Zack limped up the aisle. His skeletal alignment was damaged by the surgeries. He would limp for a while, if I couldn't cure him first.

But his face was radiant with joy, and it was clean-shaven and polished. His chocolate eyes were fixed on the woman in white ahead of him. As he reached the altar she kissed him and the whole crowd cheered. I stood up, a full smile splitting my face. Zack had grown up, and was finally where he belonged in his personal life.

Zack cried as he said his vows, but he held it back. His vows were scientific and a jest to me, but they pronounced his undying love. His wife's face was beautifully symmetric, and her figure was aesthetically pleasing. Her words were simple, yet educated, and slightly lilting.

They kissed as Angela triggered the flowers to come raining down. Together, they stayed linked, their passion a hot wave, together forever. The world around us blurred and Zack and Lily disappeared from view.


	12. Chapter 12

The icy cold pain in my chest woke me up first. Lily was gone, she had gone to a conference; her spot next to me in the bed was cold. Agony pierced my chest as the bullet raked across the vascular tissue of my heart. A terrible, unrefined scream rent my throat, as I writhed helplessly on my bed.

Whiteness flickered in front of my eyes, and I found that I could see Hodgins's face, Angela's, Naomi's, Booth's and Brennan's faces. _They cannot be here. _I told myself through the haze of pain. _It's just minute firings of optic tissue on my eyes. _

But they looked down at me, their eyes devoid of emotion. Coldness began to creep over me. _Do they care about me?_ I still worked at the lab, and the times had been good, just like _before _the Master and the Bullet. They still told me they loved me.

Pain dropped a sparkling red curtain over my vision and I convulsed. The bullet's cold tip rested against my thrashing heart. It was a matter of minutes before I died when the bullet punctured my heart.

The faces of all the cadavers I had worked on surfaced in my mind. The one that hung in my mind was the boy's skeleton, the one that I had placed in a coffin to rest. I thought of Lily's swollen belly, and the thought of my son who grew inside that warm womb. Tears came to my eyes. I inhaled sharply through my nose, and the bullet pierced my heart, severing my tissue. I wailed in torture, and white slammed into my vision. The white eventually faded into static gray that slowly gave away to blackness.

My body became light and airy, and I had the sensation that I was _floating. _A dark tunnel lay in front of me. My brother who had died in a boating accident years ago stretched out his hand. "Come on, Zackaroni."

I took his hand and was pulled into everlasting darkness. I knew nothing from that point onward.


	13. Chapter 13

I inspected the burnt fifth phalanges of the corpse in front of me. There was something there, but it was too mangled for me to figure out what it was.

"Hodgins, have Zack clean these bones." I told him, turning around.

No one was looking at me. They were all crowded around a TV.

"Hey!" the shout trailed off in my mouth. Angela's face was white with worry and Hodgins was biting his lip. Cam's hand was over her mouth. Mr. Bray was watching, his mouth hanging open.

"Dr. Zack Addy of the Jeffersonian Institute of Forensic Science was found dead in his house earlier today. The cause of death was not apparent."

Hodgins was crying and Angela's eye grew red. A hammer struck me in the chest and I stumbled backward. _Gone! _My thoughts were fuzzy with pain. _Gone, no, no, please no! _

I ripped off the gloves that stuck to my hands and ran for Booth, tears streaming down my face. People cast surprised looks at me I tore past. I climbed a flight of stairs and opened Booth's office door.

"Bones?"

"He's dead!" I wailed.

"Who's dead?" Booth had risen and dashed over to me.

"Zack!"

"Bones…." Booth wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. "I'm so sorry. He was a good man."

The world faded to black around me, and the last thought was of his son, still to be born. With out a father. Agony pierced me like a splinter and I shut my eyes tight, squeezing back the tide of tears, bidding myself away from a world that snuffed out lives like candles.


End file.
